It's 2:15pm on a Friday, and I'm sitting in the keynote hall at PyCon 2013 fidgeting through a succession of lightning talks that have very little relevance to my life. Topics like "Python code coverage techniques" (ho-hum) and "Controlling Christmas lights with Python” (yawn - I wonde...

Exelon Corporation employs technology and process improvements to optimize their IT operations, manage a merger and acquisition transition, and to bring outsourced IT operations back in-house.
To learn more about how this leading energy provider in the US, with a family of companies h...

What is a hero? Well, to me, it’s someone who takes the right action when it’s needed and steps up to save the day.
Are there heroes in the workplace? People whose actions save the day? People who commit great acts of organizational excellence? I would say that there are. And more, I ...

In the last year, conversations about In-Memory Computing (IMC) have become more and more prevalent in enterprise IT circles, especially with organizations feeling the pressure to process massive quantities of data at the speed that is now being demanded by the Internet. The hype aroun...

The JVM issues vary from Java OutOfMemory Error to JVM Crash. Application developers might be not completely equipped to determine the root cause of the issue, hence DevOps can play a vital role in narrowing down the issue and connecting the right people/team to rectify the problem.
...

Database change management is a unique challenge when adopting an agile development practice or implementing DevOps patterns. It really straddles two groups: the developers and the DBAs. Developers design and author the application schema changes based on the needs of the business. ...

“Culture” is nebulous and seemingly ephemeral, as it consists of a lot of touchy-feely sentiments which tend to be at odds with how engineers have trained themselves to think – rationally and logically.
DevOps is generally recognized as a means of driving better business outcomes via ...

Let me ask you a question: would you say that you have implemented logging correctly for your application? Correct in the sense that it will provide you with all the insights you require to keep your business going once your users are struck by errors? And in a way that does not advers...

The ability to automatically and reliably deploy entire application runtime environments is a key factor to optimizing the average time it requires to take features from idea to the hands of your (paying) customers. This minimization of feature cycle time or feature lead time is, after...

Moscow-based OpenBank, one of the largest private financial services groups in Russia, has built out a business intelligence capability for wholly new business activity monitoring benefits.
The next BriefingsDirect deep-dive big data benefits case study interview explores how Moscow-b...

The pace of innovation in such big data-driven targeting technology is advancing unabated. There is so much noise in today’s omnichannel world that anything a marketer can do to get your attention is welcome – and furthermore, the more information they can collect about you, the better...

Considered by many as the next step beyond Agile, DevOps has proven to be effective at accelerating development cycles, improving performance, reducing bugs and overall improving the innovation and velocity of development teams.
There are a couple ways to look at DevOps: first, DevOps...

We talk on this channel a lot about digital transformation, but how far does its scope extend?
Just in case you had grown tired and world weary of the whole ‘digital transformation’ terms in the first place (Ed - surely not?), let us reinvigorate it by defining what we mean.
The m...

Isn’t it great to treat your girlfriend by cooking her favorite omelet every morning? In theory, sure, but in reality, chances are most of the time you end up with darn scrambled eggs instead. Let’s face it: you’re a great boyfriend but a terrible cook. Believe it or not, this is quite...

for storage and computing operations at scale. These capabilities allow organizations to store massive amounts of data, in disparate formats, and perform both batch and real-time analyses upon them. The forces driving Big Data into the mainstream are the ever-decreasing cost of storage...

Are you developing or hosting PHP applications? Are you doing performance sanity checks along your delivery pipeline? No? Not Yet? Then start with a quick check. It only takes 15 minutes and it really pays off. As a developer you can improve your code, and as somebody responsible for y...

Have you ever deployed a change to production and thought “All went well – Systems are operating as expected!” but then you had to deal with users complaining that they keep running into errors?
We recently moved some of our systems between two of our data centers – even moving some c...

I would say that only one out of a million exceptions thrown in an application actually makes it to a log file – unless you run your application in verbose logging mode – Do you agree? No? Here is why I think that is: because most exceptions are handled by your code or by the framework...

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are a traditional mechanism for both improving the delivery speed of a web site while also reducing the network load on the origin servers that provide the web site. The CDN accomplishes these two goals by offloading static content from the origin web s...

These days, implementing automatic deployment for .NET web projects is easier than ever. Drastic improvements started in Visual Studio 2010 when basic deployment strategies and tools were incorporated into VS itself. Yet, documentation was quite poor at that time, so you had to scour t...

The Open Group and BriefingsDirect recently assembled a distinguished panel at The Open Group Boston Conference 2014 to explore the practical implications and limits of the Internet of Things.
This so-called Internet of Things means more data, more cloud connectivity and management, a...

My favorite war room accusation is: “It’s always the network at fault!” Whether you’re the one taking the blame or the one pointing the finger likely has everything to do with which seat you occupy in that war room. I suppose that comes with the territory, because at the same time ther...

Finally a book from an industry leader that has the guts to write about the real world of Agile software development. If I had to pick one word to describe this book, it would be 'truth'.
This book is going to raise the blood pressure of some of the Agilists out there. If you think ...

GSN Games exploits big data to effectively uncover game-changing entertainment trends for their audience. Oh, and it changes corporate cultures, too.
It's a shame when the data analysis providers inside a company get the cold shoulder from the business leaders because the data keeps p...

Waste Management's IT organization began rebuilding their quality assurance processes from the ground up by making the appropriate choices and investments in technology, such as in people and processes -- and their scorecard is very good.
It's only been a few years since Waste Managem...

Transaction management is not just for technical geeks; it is very much a subject that ‘business suits’ should be focused on.
But should it be seen as a business issue for technologists or a technology issue for business people?
Or doesn’t it matter and should transaction management...

At the beginning of the book the authors say they created this book to be used in a classroom setting. I agree that it is a great book for the classroom, but I would also recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about the current Agile methodologies. It does what the title of the book...

When combining all data sources into one central location, decisions become more uniform. While there are many ways to integrate multiple sources into a data warehouse, attention to detail is key to avoid creating more problems than are being solved.
Choosing when to adopt a data war...

In the US Army they have a term called "Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA)." It is often associated with the use of modern data collecting technologies, communications technologies, information analysis and the use of these technologies to improve strategies, doctrines and organizati...

I am honored that the Cloud Expo conference organizers have asked me to be the Tech Chair for DevOps Summit 2014. The positive response from so many people I respect has been wonderful. Thank you to all who sent good wishes – it means a lot to me to have your support.
Part of what mak...

In Part V, we discussed processing delays caused by “slow” client and server nodes. In Part VI, we’ll discuss the Nagle algorithm, a behavior that can have a devastating impact on performance and, in many ways, appear to be a processing delay.
Beyond being important for (reasonably) a...

Followers of the Enterprise File Share and Sync Market (EFSS) will have noticed a flurry of announcements in the last few weeks. In particular:
SAP and OpenText collaborated with Tempo Box; Egnyte outlined it would leverage Google's Storage; Box purchased Stream as well as announcing ...

An expected deluge of data and information about patients, providers, outcomes, and needed efficiencies is pushing the healthcare industry to re-evaluate interoperability, security and the ability to adapt rapidly to the lessons in the data.
The means of enabling Boundaryless Informat...

A newly established firm sent out some basic information collateral to introduce itself this summer – and a new type of business model would seem to be emerging.
The company here in question described itself as a non-integrated silo-based business that was disparately fragmented into ...

Ensuring a safe work environment can be accomplished when individuals work in either a government or private-sector office, but it becomes exponentially more complicated when employees are mobile, traveling from one job or worksite to another. While many organizations implement mobile ...

In Part IV, we wrapped up our discussions on bandwidth, congestion and packet loss. In Part V, we examine the four types of processing delays visible on the network, using the request/reply paradigm we outlined in Part I.
From the network’s perspective, we allocate the time period bet...

We know that losing packets is not a good thing; retransmissions cause delays. We also know that TCP ensures reliable data delivery, masking the impact of packet loss. So why are some applications seemingly unaffected by the same packet loss rate that seems to cripple others? From a pe...

We talk a lot about so-called ‘business transformation’, but what do we really mean by this expression and how does it change the way (as workers) now operate on the shop floor?
Read any history of the industrial revolution and you will understand the massively impactful swings that o...

In Part II, we discussed performance constraints caused by both bandwidth and congestion. Purposely omitted was a discussion about packet loss – which is often an inevitable result of heavy network congestion. I’ll use this blog entry on TCP slow-start to introduce the Congestion Windo...

When we think of application performance problems that are network-related, we often immediately think of bandwidth and congestion as likely culprits; faster speeds and less traffic will solve everything, right? This is reminiscent of recent ISP wars; which is better, DSL or cable mode...

Microservices Journal focuses on the business and technology of the software architecture design pattern, in which complex applications are composed of small, independent processes communicating with each other using language-agnostic APIs.

The competition among public cloud providers is red hot, private cloud continues to grab increasing shares of IT budgets, and hybrid cloud strategies are beginning to conquer the enterprise IT world.

Big Data is driving dramatic leaps in resource requirements and capabilities, and now the Internet of Things promises an exponential leap in the size of the Internet and Worldwide Web.

The world of SDX now encompasses Software-Defined Data Centers (SDDCs) as the technology world prepares for the Zettabyte Age.

Add the key topics of WebRTC and DevOps into the mix, and you have three days of pure cloud computing that you simply cannot miss.

Cloud Expo - the world's most established event - offers a vast selection of 130+ technical and strategic Industry Keynotes, General Sessions, Breakout Sessions, and signature Power Panels. The exhibition floor features 100+ exhibitors offering specific solutions and comprehensive strategies. The floor also features two Demo Theaters that give delegates the opportunity to get even closer to the technology they want to see and the people who offer it.

Attend Cloud Expo. Craft your own custom experience. Learn the latest from the world's best technologists. Find the vendors you want and put them to the test.